Chocolate Coconut Banana Bread Pudding and STIR IT 28

So someone knocks on your door. And says to you. “I am going to give you about fifty bananas, ten cartons of eggs, twenty baguettes. Get in the kitchen. B****.”

What do you do?

Seeing as how I live in New York. I would probably run away screaming and have the grocery items sent to the federal government to be checked for some kind of bioterror agent. Anthrax. SARS. Avian flu. The gamut. Because there is no such thing as free lunch. You can not get something for nothing. Unless, perhaps, if you live in Iowa. Remember that.

Now for the real story.

What. If.

You decide to cook for this fundraiser to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims. You also decide to break every rule in the Cooking For Others handbook. (Handbook? What handbook? It’s a crazy world in which we live. And I refuse to be held down.) But we will get to that.

It’s the night before. Your menu is planned, everything is prepared so that all you have to do tomorrow is yank your stuffed mushrooms from the fridge and head on over to the East Village. Twenty minutes in the oven. Plate. Garnish. No. Sweat.

Then you get an email. Innocently sent. By the event’s organizer, Christy. Saying. So, apparently Trader Joe’s has donated bananas, bread, and eggs to the event. Anyone care to whip up a bread pudding?

Hi. My name is Joanne. And I am a pudding addict. Rice pudding. Chocolate pudding. Bread pudding. If it starts with a “P” and ends with an “Udding”. I love it.

So when Christy sent out that email. There was absolutely no way that I wasn’t going to respond immediately saying, Um hell yeah.

Here comes the crux of the matter.

Have I ever made bread pudding before?

Absolutely not. (I haven’t made stuffed mushrooms before either. Here’s where that handbook would have been slightly useful.)

But there’s a first time for everything. Might as well be when you are cooking for 30+ people who are paying to eat your food. Right?As you might have guessed, my melodrama notwithstanding, this story has a happy ending. The stuffed mushrooms? Excellent. I made a vegetarian version, which were essentially the panko stuffed mushrooms from Veganomicon. With a secret ingredient added in. (Sriracha and a bit of hot sauce. Because obviously either alone just wasn’t spicy enough.) As well as a non-vegetarian version. These plum-glazed sausage stuffed mushrooms from Bon Appetit. With the secret ingredient here being spicy Italian sausage. They disappeared pretty quickly. I prepared both of them the night before, let them sit in the fridge overnight and then just popped them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Really easy. And perfect make-ahead dish if you’re entertaining guests.

And the bread pudding? There’s really very little I can say about that. Mostly because. It rendered me speechless. It was good. Like. Really good. Not to toot my own horn or anything. But two of my best friends came to the event. And I believe their comment was. Out of the park. Mind-blowing. Good. After plating the servings for the event guests, us cooks may or may not have stood around the leftovers in the pan, picking out the pieces. With our bare hands. That’s how good.

And honestly, I couldn’t have been more proud. Because you know. It’s one thing to sit at home and cook my own food and tell you guys that it’s delicious. I might have really weird taste buds. You never know. But it’s quite another to actually cook for other people. To have people pay for your food no less. And then have them like it.

In short. One of the best experiences. Ever. (And also one of those times when I asked myself, Why didn’t I go to culinary school again? I ask myself that daily, actually. And then Sophie has to remind me that I actually do want to cure cancer.) I couldn’t have been more proud. What more could a girl ask for in a birthday present? Not much.

I might not even need that ice cream maker. (Although, mom and dad…if you’re reading this. I wouldn’t say no to it either. Because nothing goes better with bread pudding than ice cream. Think about it.)So thanks to Christy for organizing this and letting me take part. It was amazing. And thanks to all of the other bloggers who came and cooked. It was awesome meeting you guys! And eating your earth-shatteringly good food. (What is it about meeting fellow foodies that is so satisfying? Not sure. But I always feel so content with life afterward. Like I’ve forged some real connections with people.) Please check out Christy’s post to see who all was there and to check out what everyone else cooked!

Also thanks to everyone who came to event. The money we raised is going to such an amazing cause (which did actually make the experience all the better). And if you couldn’t make it but still want to contribute? Donations will be accepted until February 28th at http://www.Flanboyateats.com.Chocolate Coconut Banana Bread Pudding
Serves many. Adapted from. The dark recesses of my mind.

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Unless your bread is stale already. In which case, preheat your oven to 350. If your bread is NOT stale, then put the torn pieces on a baking sheet and cook them until they start to get hard, probably 10-15 minutes.

2. Lower the oven to 350. Place 3/4 of the bread chunks in a deep 9×13 pan. Layer the bananas on top. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Add the rest of the bread.

3. In a bowl, mix together the melted butter and milks. Beat in the sugar. Beat in each of the eggs, one at a time. Add in the vanilla and cinnamon and mix until well incorporated. Pour over the bread in the pan. Cover with saran wrap and let sit, in the fridge, for at least an hour. However, the longer the better. Ideally, this would have sat in the fridge overnight.

4. Bake at 350 until the eggs have set. This took about an hour and a half for me but I don’t think our oven was working 100% so it might be shorter. Check after 50 minutes and then again every ten minutes until it’s done.

You are reading this post on Eats Well With Others at https://joanne-eatswellwithothers.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of Eats Well With Others. All rights reserved by Joanne Bruno.

Sounds like an incredible event. I’m not a mushroom fan so I enjoyed the pictures of the banana puddling much better. I totally would have paid for it too! I LOVE bread pudding. My friend just actually asked me last night “when are you going to make your chocolate mint bread pudding again”. I’ve never done banana though, maybe I’ll whip some of this up for her. I’ll go check out Christy’s blog in a bit and yea to Trader Joes for making the pudding happen. They rock!

ha ha ha,if someone send me a hamper like that, what would be running around screaming are thoughts in my head as to what cookie to bake ’em next ….cookies ie…hehehehe….

Love this event and its awesome u are part of it and aint suprised ur cooking was a hit- ur recipes are fantastic and u dont need me to prove it to u but have a suprise for u on 25th -aint supposed to tell u this but yeah working on this….hehehehehe….And am so glad to be a part ,after ur wonderful part in this event…not tonights post ok ,check the next post on 25th…..

though would have loved to bring the cookies i’ll post later on 25th too…cheers and all the best babes…..

ha ha ha,if someone send me a hamper like that, what would be running around screaming are thoughts in my head as to what cookie to bake ’em next ….cookies ie…hehehehe….

Love this event and its awesome u are part of it and aint suprised ur cooking was a hit- ur recipes are fantastic and u dont need me to prove it to u but have a suprise for u on 25th -aint supposed to tell u this but yeah working on this….hehehehehe….And am so glad to be a part ,after ur wonderful part in this event…not tonights post ok ,check the next post on 25th…..

though would have loved to bring the cookies i’ll post later on 25th too…cheers and all the best babes…..

Oh yumm heaven! I love how you thought of banana bread pudding almost IMMEDIATELY. I absolutely love pudding, actually I love anything especially much if you can eat it with a spoon, like soup! Or stew… or pudding. Pudding anonymous here I come!

You GO Girl!!! I tried to make an orange chocolate bread pudding for the Monthly Mingle event last week. It was HORRID. Gooey mush topped with a crisp alien crust with a couple of blobs of chocolate for good measure. I almost cried. Because ironically I had followed a “recipe”.And you came up with this ona whim. BRAVO!!!!!

I’m a bread pudding fanatic too! And really, there isn’t much you can’t put in there as long as you have the four basics: bread, eggs, sugar and milk. Variations welcomed! And you put some great ones in….bananas, coconut milk, choc. chips AND cinnamon. Yummee. No wonder everyone loved it! And for thirty people! I am soooo impressed!

love the banana pudding! It sounds like an incredible event you participated in, oh, and, if I got *any* gift anonymously, I would probably run away 🙂 Oh and by the way, I also sent you an entry for middle eastern event, haven’t gotten around to mailing it to you with all the info yet, but its on my blog.

You never cease to amaze me Joanne! What a beautiful dish for an incredible event. I only wish I could have been there to participate – or at least to eat all that awesome goodness! Kudos to you and all the bloggers who showed up, just wonderful!

LOL the first step to addiction is admitting it, but I suggest doing nothing about this addition to a thing starting with “P” and ending with “udding!” You are also one amazing writer – thanks for making me smile with your words and your recipe!

Just reading the title of this blog made my tastebuds go bananas! I, too am a pudding fanatic and I make bread pudding quite often(especially when I make Jambalaya!) This recipe sounds outrageous and I can’t wait to try it. Congratulations on your success and for supporting such a great cause! Bravo:)

YAY for the awesome event, and gosh that pudding sounds like the BOMB. I never was really a pudding fan until I tried bread pudding. Gosh, pudding just needs some chewy BREAD in it!! Have you tried croissant pudding before? Ooooh la la!

Awww, u’re such a softie .. doing good for all mankind .. especially with PUDDINGGGGGG!! Yeah, I know it’s retro, but I love bread pudding meself, and this is making me drool & wish I was pregnant again so I could make this and devour it all by myself!

Many congratulations for completing the fund raising successfully. See, such things happen to make it even more special, you will remember it for putting it all out for the cause. Seriously gal, you havent made it before (neither have I, he he). Kudos to your quick thinking.

All of them look good. Lovely clicks. Have w wonderful week. We are expecting snow in TX 😀

I am also a bread pudding addict. Like, I have a problem. The thing is, for a bread pudding to be REALLY DELICIOUS, it has to be REALLY UNHEALTHY. Otherwise… I would probably eat it every day.But you go girl! That was so brave of you to take that on, and furthermore it was a GREAT cause and furthermore that is an insanely delicious looking dish for your first-ever, sans-recipe attempt at making it!

I love to make bread pudding – it always comes out so yummy and you can do so many different things with it. Sounds like you had a really fun time… I’m going to check out Christy’s blog to see what it was all about!

Life without chocolate would be very hard. What would we eat when we are happy or sad? 😛

You are lucky to participate in that event! You did a great job.

By the way, as you love pudding, you would love my grandmom. Every summer, she has to make tons of pudding with all the fresh fruits she can put her hands on (in her case: strawberries, raspberries and blueberries). the only problem I has with it when I grew up is that I had to keep for her a part of the fresh fruits to do her baking. That was hard. I wanted to keep all the fresh fruits for myself and to eat them as they were. Hihi.

Good for you! Donating your time, although I can’t imagine you have much extra time, is wonderful!

Once I was leaving my market with a full cart and man walked up to me carrying a case of bananas and put the case on the bottom shelf of my cart. I was speechless. The bananas were perfectly fine but too ripe to put on the shelf for sale so they were giving a case away to everyone. Luckily I passed the firehall on the way home and gave 3/4s of the case to the fireman!

That’s really great that you guys did such a meaningful thing! The pudding looks delish! My vice is custard – creme brulee, flan, clafouti, you name it, I’ll stuff my face with it. I know exactly what you mean too about how cooking for other people (and paying people no less!) always validates your own confidence as a cook since we obviously can’t be objective about our own food.

By the way, as someone else above commented, my gosh where do you find time to live?! You’re a med student, you blog, you cook, you bake AND you respond to all your comments! I’m convinced you have a superpower that can stop time. Or you are just AMAZING!!!

It’s always wonderful when things go according to plan. You did a wonderful job with your contributions and more importantly you know how to tell a tale. I enjoyed visiting your blog and will be back often.

I had a good laugh reading this. Was it your birthday, happy birthday!

I’ve never thought of pairing bread pudding with ice-cream, though, I’m still considering the novelty of it – didn’t know it was done. In fact, chocolate in bread pudding itself is a fairly recent discovery for me, given that all the bread puddings I’ve eaten earlier were flavoured with raisins, some spices and a variety of jams.

SO happy that you agreed to be part of Stir It 28! This story is too funny. Christy tweeted about the TJ’s baguettes, but the eggs and bananas too?! What a blessing! No doubt you guys had an awesome event!